PURPOSE

The purpose of the research paper is to provide students with the opportunity to undertake a piece of original, independent financial research. This project will be something tangible which you can show potential employers. The end-product will be similar to a mini-dissertation or research paper.  The research paper is an individual piece of work.

MARKING SCHEME

The project accounts for 75% of your overall module mark. The breakdown of marks for the project is as follows:

Please refer to Appendix 1 which provides an outline of the feedback sheet you will receive and the marking criteria. The suggested page lengths for each section below will give you an indication of how the marks for each section are weighted.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE RESEARCH PAPER

The research paper is to be no more than 15 pages long including title page, tables, figures, and appendices. References are excluded from the 15-page limit.  Your text (apart from tables and footnotes) should be double-spaced using size  12 Times New Roman font.   Standard margins should be used.  Research papers which don’t meet these requirements will not be accepted.

Each research paper should have the following:

1.   Your title, name and student number on the first page.

2.   An abstract of less than 100 words.  This should summarise your paper, and be on the first page.

3.   An introduction (1-2 pages) which details what the research paper is about is about (your research questions), why it is important, your main findings, and a short (one paragraph) overview of what you do in each section.

4.   A literature review and theoretical section. (approx. 3 pages).   This should be critical of the literature.  It should also tie in with what you are doing in your empirical work.

It shouldn’t be a comprehensive literature review of all the major papers!!  It should contain your main hypotheses.

5.   Data and Methodology section (approx. 2 pages) – How are you going to test your hypotheses?   Where  is  your  data  from?    What  is  your methodology?   Any  data problems?

6.   Results and Analysis section (approx. 6 pages) - Tables and figures of results.  State

your findings. Explain your findings.  How do your results fit in with the literature?

7.   Conclusion (approx.  1-2 pages)  - summary of findings, weaknesses of your paper, possible future research.

8.   References – please note that all and only cited papers should be in your references. Please follow the Harvard style of referencing.  Guidelines on how to reference can be found here:http://libguides.qub.ac.uk/c.php?g=282337&p=1881364

Failure to reference properly will result in marks being deducted.

9.   You should follow the formatting style of the Journal of Finance or Journal of Financial Economics.   Make sure your tables and figures follow this style, particularly when presenting econometric results.

Please refer to Appendix 2 for further information on the layout and content of your project

DATA FOR THE PROJECTS

You will need to collect your own data for the project.  All the guides to the main financial databases are available on Canvas.  I have also put up some datasets. You may wish to look at other sources, please ensure they are credible and you can verify the integrity of your data.

POSSIBLE TOPICS

You have the freedom to choose your area of research, provided it falls within the syllabus of the course.  It is important that you ensure that data is available before you select your topic.

I have outlined some potential research topics below:

1.   Ownership

-   Do different ownership structures affect firm performance?

2.   Corporate governance

-   How board structure influences firm performance

-   CEO pay performance sensitivity

-   Board diversity

3.   Determinants of capital structure